Deborah Grantham works in her aunt's gambling house. She is one of the attractions that brings gamblers to the tables, being quite strikingly beautiful. She has several admirers among the British upper class men who visit the casino, one of whom is in possession of several bills her aunt owes and mortgage for the house, Lord Ormskirk. He has so far failed in his quest to seduce Deborah and is holding the bills & mortgage over her and her aunt's heads. Deborah's other most persistent suitor is young Adrian, Lord Mablethorpe, who has been trying to get Deborah to agree to marry him. So far she has refused, even though he will come into his large inheritance in a few months when he comes of age and be in the position to help Deborah's aunt out of her financial difficulties.
Even though her aunt has been pressuring her to accept Adrian, Deborah has stood firmly against it. She may just be a working girl in a casino, but she is not interested in marrying for money. Meanwhile, Adrian's trustee, Max Ravenscar, has heard about Adrian's infatuation with Deborah and he is convinced she is after Adrian's money and Max is determined to prevent the marriage.
When Max tries to buy her off, it offends her to the point of making a very bad decision: in anger, she pretends to only be interested in marrying Adrian because he is a wealthy man of the nobility and she refuses to be bought off. She continues to carry on this charade, with the intention of teaching Max a lesson. Max fails to realize that he wounded her deeply when he tried to bribe her and that she really has no intention of marrying Adrian. Deborah takes it so far as to arrange for Max to be kidnapped and locked in her aunt's cellar, but he manages to trick her and escape.
Eventually Max begins to see through the game she is playing and to understand that he is very attracted to Deborah despite her being one of Faro's Daughters. But due to a silly misunderstanding, he once again accuses her of being a gold digger and calls her many ugly and insulting names. In a fury, Deborah, forbids him to ever approach her again and bans him from her aunt's establishment. Too late, Max realizes his error and that he has probably lost the only woman he will ever love.
This is one of my favorite Heyer stories. Deborah is a woman with many strikes against her but she doesn't let it beat her down. She takes on the opposition and doesn't let anyone get in her way, including her aunt and her brother, and, of course, Max. On the other hand, her spiritedness may lead her into questionable decisions, such as locking Max in the cellar or pretending to be a vulgar gold digger just to get back at Max. So even though Deborah makes some stupid decisions, that is just part of the fun of the story.
Here is a review by Austenprose.
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